Looking at all this Lisbon footy inevitably reminded us of one of Portugal’s greatest son’s: Ricardo Fonseca. Reason enough to catch up with him and reminisce his glory days by means of this “Ricardo Fonseca Remix” edit.

Reaching out to him his first remark was that he was “low on battery”, which, although referring to his phone, felt weird compared to the image of an almost super-hero like energetic, beastly skate-machine image I had in mind of Ricardo. But there was no reason to worry. Ricardo, now dad of a two year old son, is just focussing on what’s important to him now: “living the real life… and it’s the best thing in the world.”

“There was a time”, Ricardo says, “when I didn’t want to have anything to do with skateboarding. You are more than a board and some wheels”, which, if you put things into perspective, is a very true and sane statement.

When he does skate these days though, he’s usually hitting the new park by the sea in Ericeira, cruising the bowl and tight trannies care free, no obligations. “Hitting the floor is harder these days”, he explains, “I just ride for the fun of it.”

When I asked about a trick he’d done (switch heel shuv at the McDonald’s road gap) that Daan van der Linden’s is re-doing in this new Vans Lisbon edit, he just shrugs: “I don’t stress. ABD, nbd… who cares.” His inspiration theses days are locals like Ruben Rodrigues, George Simoes, Gustavo Ribeiro or Tiago Pinto. And despite stating he’s spent too many years on the plank, he’s certain that the feeling you get from it is “still priceless” and not to be found anywhere else.

Wise words! Keep ripping at whatever you do, Ricardo!